The Dragon's Tail
by gryphflame
Summary: A big, scaled, winged, fire-breathing creature is kidnapping the daughters of Haven’s council members. The solution? An 18-year-old genius with an impossible request. Can Recon really risk Haven security over one little dragon?
1. Prologue

Author's notes: Before I begin, I need to tell you all I almost never finish what I start. I may end up scrapping this halfway through, there's no guarantee you will ever see the end. Still, I think it should be an interesting story, one without Mary Sues, or even any OCs other than he villain. I'm writing it and posting it here because there are so very few good Artemis Fowl fics out there, and even an unfinished one might help negate some of the unfortunate stupidity brought to this amazing series.  
With that said, here's the 

**PROLOGUE**

There are very few things in the world worse than a drunk faerie. Beet red faces, incoherent speech, inability to use magic, and excessive aggression are just some of the signs that a faerie is drunk, and the Mud Hole Tavern was famous for housing fairies exhibiting all three such symptoms.

Corporal Grub Kelp wasn't a frequent visitor to the tavern, but a dare was a dare. He couldn't just refuse, not with half of recon looking on. He'd even agreed not to bring Trouble along, his big brother would have just gone and told mom anyways.

Taking another swig from the grimy cup of alcoholic something or other he'd ordered, Grub looked around for his friends from recon. They'd all left, how strange. "I guess they'd sumwhere t'be" the elf muttered aloud. He'd stay for awhile, this drink stuff wasn't so bad once you got used to the taste. And he was feeling a little woozy, best not to stand up just yet.

Something large and scaly slithered into the chair across from Kelp, handing the recon officer another mug of the mystery drink. Grub stared at him, blinking dumbly. "U're not from the r'con, ar'ye?" He asked incoherently, "Y'look like a messed up goblin y'weirdo"

The scaled creature contemplated this for a moment, then spoke in a hissing, scratching voice. "You're from the recon, the goblins say you think you know everything. If you know everything, please tell me: what is it that dragons do?"

At the time, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to Grub. And he wasn't really so weird, once you looked at him. No, he looked very friendly. Yes, very friendly."They kidn'p princes's, duuh!" He said, slamming his mug down for emphasis. "But now th'kings'r gone, now the shtupid council's in ch'rge, so they's like th'kings I'guess."

The creature nodded. "Oh, okay." He said, almost cheerfully behind all the hissing and scratching. So friendly, such a nice, nice creature. 

"Glad I c'd'elp" Replied Grub, finishing off his drink. The creature got up out of his seat with some difficulty, working his large scales out from where they had stuck into the wooden chair. 

"Where y'going?" Asked the recon officer, disappointed to see his new friend leave. Not just a friend, a drinking buddy! Who's the mamma's elf now, eh? he thought with a private chuckle that came out as a loud guffaw. 

"I'm going to kidnap some princesses." Said the dragon, walking out. 

"O'kay, c'um back soon!" Called Grub after his new friend, smiling. Such a nice, friendly creature he was. 


	2. Kidnapped!

**Author's notes:** sorry folks, no new chapter part today. Instead, you get a spiffy polishing and chapter condensation! Every time I actually get around to finishing a chapter, I'll stick it all together and fix up all my stupid mistakes. You see, I usually end up writing these things sometime just after midnight, after eating five or six oreo cookies beforehand. Even with Microsoft Word's auto spelling and grammar checks, I'm bound to make mistakes. Plus, by the time I'm done a chapter I'll have a clearer idea as to what I'm doing in the next one, so you'll get more foreshadowing if you read the full version. At the end of every full chapter there will be a long author's notes section where I can ramble about it and explain a few of the changes. If you really want to know what's going to happen next, reading both the polished chapter and the author's notes at the end is recommended, but neither is necessary to understand the story.  


**LEP HQ, Haven, The Lower Elements**

Captain Holly Short ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the long, crowded halls of LEP HQ. In one hand, she held a newspaper display pad with some rather disconcerting news displayed upon it. Of course, the People didn't use paper for newsprint any more, the Mud Men were doing a great job at destroying Earth's forests without their help. Instead, news was sent directly to subscribers' personal computers, or downloaded off convenient newsstands around the city. Most of the stuff was junk, there was very little in the way of news in a small, stable city like Haven. Every now and again, though, something would happen that made the papers worth reading.

Like, for instance, the kidnapping of three of the Council 's daughters. Apparently Foaly now had info on the abductions, about which a meeting was being conducted. And Holly was late.

"D'Arvit, Out of my way!" She yelled, sending a few low-level officers scurrying in opposite directions as she ran past them. She almost missed the entrance to the meeting room in her hurry to get there. Luckily, the big bold sign reading "meeting room" was enough to catch her eye.

"-Is located to the southwest of Bathurst Island. Cold, but practically untouched by Mud-" Foaly stopped in mid longwinded explanation as Holly quietly closed the door behind her. The entire room, which consisted of twelve captains, three commanders, seven distressed council members and a centaur, turned towards her.

"I... I got held up in the Chutes." Explained Holly, quietly taking her seat with obvious discomfort.

"I see, and you couldn't run fast enough to make up for lost time?" Sneered one of the seven Council members. Even after more than a decade of service, some people would always consider Holly the 'test case who got in through sheer luck'. At any other time, she would have pointed out that she had been one of the fastest elves in her class, and could outrun any council member without breaking a sweat. Root's glare from further up the table, however, kept her quiet long enough to realize how much trouble such a childish display would cause. 

"As I was saying," said Foaly after a brief and awkward pause, "It's definitely a dragon. The eyewitnesses were all telling the truth. And we've found his lair, which is up in northern Canada."

"Then why are we still standing around here?!" Boomed a council member, one of the three with missing daughters. "Let's go in, blast the overgrown goblin and save my daughter!"

"It's a Dragon, not a goblin, and we're working on that part." Said Foaly, shuffling his hooves. "Apparently the team that found the place tried to do just that, and ran into some... some trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" Asked at least three of the captains as once, it was one of those lines Recon officers just couldn't resist saying.

"Well, there's a security system, but that wouldn't usually be a problem." Said Foaly. "The Dragon, though, he's keeping a human inside the building. It's technically a dwelling, we can't enter without loosing our magic."

The room fell silent.

"Can't we just get some magicless criminal to go in and unlock the door with your instructions?" Asked Root, sounding just a bit smug at coming up with a brilliant plan that Foaly had missed.

"I've thought of that, and so has the Dragon. Communications have been jammed within a three mile radius. Without a chance to see even a picture of the system up close, I can't just write down instructions for some criminal to follow." Retorted Foaly.

"Great minds think alike" whispered one of the Council members bitterly, Foaly appeared to take no notice of the comment.

"So what we need," reiterated Root, "Is someone without magic, smart enough to break a top notch security system and trick a human into letting a Recon team into the place." 

"And who would you suggest?" Asked one of the other Commanders skeptically. "I don't know a fairy alive fitting that description."

It was at this point that Holly had one of the craziest idea she had ever thought up. It was stupid, they'd wiped his memory clean, and he wasn't exactly Mr. Helpful under the best of circumstances. Even if they could find him and get him to remember, he'd probably ask for a whole bunch more gold in return. Then again, there weren't exactly many other options available.

"Do you remember the Fowl kid we mind wiped four years ago?" Asked Holly, breaking the silence that had descended upon the room again. 

"Holly, you can't be serious!" Objected Root immediately. "Letting Artemis remember the People could jeopardize all of Haven! He may have helped us out before, but he has no reason to help now."

"I know all that, but-" Said Holly, frustrated. 

"Is there a chance this Artemis could help get our children back?" Asked one of the Council, a grief-stricken Dwarf who looked at Holly hopefully.

"Yes," said Holly. "But it's not a great one."

"Then I believe you have at least three votes from the Council to go ahead with your plan." He said.

"Four," said another of the council members, one with a daughter as of yet not kidnapped. Four was a majority, official council approval.

"This is ridiculous." Muttered Root.

"It may not be," interjected Foaly. "Four years is a long time for a human, Fowl may have changed for the better."

  
**Oxford University, London, England**

Truth be told, even Artemis himself was at a loss to explain why he had chosen to attend Oxford out of all the universities he could have applied to. Certainly, its name was well known, and it did have its share of decent classes, but a week into the term and the young genius was already bored.

It had started the day he had arrived. Getting into such a prestigious school a year early was certainly an achievement, and many of the professors recognized that he was quite bright. None of them realized just how bright, though. The fact that Artemis had written three of the textbooks he was now using in class spoke to how below him the school was. His hopes of finding something interesting at university had been lost on the very first day.

The libraries and campus facilities kept the prodigy amused for a few days, but quite frankly he had better computers at home. Four days into the term the novelty of hacking into the school's computer system had worn off, and Fowl had to find other ways to keep himself occupied while he wasn't listening to lectures he could have written in his sleep.

He soon realized it wasn't just Oxford that bored him, it was the world in general. He'd seen it all, knew it all, it just wasn't a challenge anymore. The thought of transferring to some other university, but he knew he would only find more of the same. 

Strangely enough, he had taken to walking in the many parks situated around and on the campus. The security team his mother had insisted on sending wasn't particularly happy with this habit of his, which was probably a large part of the reason why he insisted on continuing such a strange and entirely too cliche practice- even a teen-aged Artemis had his moments of rebellion. Sure there were safer ways for a multimillionaire genius criminal to rebel, but evening walks proved more interesting than stealing another few million from some big company. 

After a few threats, plots, and a video feed repetition trick Fowl had learnt a few years back, he had escaped the bodyguards that usually tailed him on such outings. For once, Artemis was almost glad that Butler wasn't with him, such tricks would never have worked on his old friend.

There were enough parks on campus that Artemis was usually able to find one that no one else was using. On some occasions, however, he did end up running into some of his fellow students. This was one such time. A group of young men were chatting loudly to one another just ahead of the prodigy, and were quick to notice him. By the way they were walking and talking just a little incoherently, Artemis could tell that they'd had a few drinks recently.

"Hey, isn't that the genius kid?" Said one to his friends, loud enough for Artemis to overhear.

"The bastard who bough his way in?" Sneered another. "Doesn't look too smart, he's not even moving."

Indeed, Artemis wasn't moving. Nor was he, as he so often was, simply paused in thought. Truth be told, the crowd was starting to look rather aggressive, something that he had never dealt with without a Butler by his side.

"Doesn't look to tough, either" said a third member of the group. They began to advance.

  
**The Lower Elements, London Access Shuttleport**

Holly Short was seriously beginning to wish she had kept her mouth shut in the meeting not three hours ago. It had only taken Foaly a few minutes to find out where Fowl was staying, a place called Oxford University Holly was sure she had heard of a few times before. It was a pretty standard recon mission- go up, catch Fowl alone, _mesmer_ize him, then head back down with the mudboy in tow. Without his knowledge of the fairy world, he would be easy enough to control until they could get him to agree to help LEP out. In exchange, no doubt, for a fair some of fairy gold.

Recon had asked Holly to go. Well, demanded really. She didn't have much choice in the matter. Before the mind wipe, she wouldn't have worried so much about running into him again, but the idea of encountering the cold child she had first met eight years ago again chilled her to the bone. She had never really agreed with the council on that mind wipe.

But there was no time for Holly to get lost in thoughts, before she could run though the rather unpleasant idea of what Artemis must now have become yet again, she was interrupted by Foaly's voice over her com set.

"The flair's in one minute, you ready?" Asked the centaur, a rhetorical question to ask one of the best shuttle pilots the LEP had ever seen. Not that rhetorics had ever stopped Foaly, who seemed to thrive on being irritating.

"Yes. I'm ready." Muttered Holly, trying and failing to sound undistracted.

"Nostalgia?" Asked Foaly, Holly could tell from the tone that he was probably raising an eyebrow as he spoke.

"Not really. I was just wondering what Fowl is going to be like. Like you said, four years is a long time for a human. I'm not so sure he'll have changed for the better."

"Well, he could have grown up worse. With fairy intervention he lear- er, but that's all erased now." Said Foaly, stumbling over his words at the last minute. "Uh, yea, hate to be in your shoes." He added, but it sounded rather forced.

It was Holly's turn to raise an eyebrow, as she wondered just what the centaur knew that he wasn't telling her. There was no way Fowl could have regained his knowledge of the People, he'd admitted to that much under her own _mesmer_ four years ago.

"The flair's here." Said Foaly after a moment of awkward silence. "Good luck and whatnot."

Holly gunned the throttles of her shuttle, grinning to herself. "Three, two, one" she counted, almost laughing aloud as the magma flair hit and she rocketed upwards. No matter how many times it happened, the sheer exhilaration of pulling 4Gs on a nonstop ride to the surface always caught her up in the instant, even when she dreaded the task ahead.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The London terminal wasn't all that busy. With such a big city so nearby, and no old oaks near winding rivers, it wasn't a particularly popular tourist attraction. A few families of fairies were scattered throughout the terminal, many waiting for another half an hour until it was truly dark before venturing outside.

Holly, however, did not have that luxury. When the seven most important people in the LEP asked you to hurry, you hurried. Grabbing an old pair of wings from the smallish LEP-only area of the terminal, she was quick to strap them on and get out, shielding as she went.

It was a calm, cool late summer/early autumn evening, with barely a cloud in the sky. Even with the light pollution radiating from London, Holly could still see a stunning array of stars when she looked up. For the most part, however, her attention was focused on the ground.

It didn't take her long to find the campus. With fairy navigation systems she could have pinpointed the location of any bench, signpost or fire hydrant in London within minutes. Indeed, it would have been much easier if she had know Fowl was sitting on a particular bench somewhere, with such a wide area she had quite a bit of searching ahead of her.

She flew low through one of the vast green parks around the campus, allowing herself the small luxury of flying just above the lush green trees. Young couples dotted the grass at various intervals, and Holly couldn't help but relax a little and simply enjoy the flight.

Until, that is, she heard the drunken rambling a few meters away. Fairy instinct drew her towards the argument, mud men or not the random violence that was obviously about to take place was a violation of everything the LEP stood for. Turning off her helmet so as not to record the very much anti-protocol interference she was about to make, Holly dove for the first of the young men who had just shoved the stunned student to the ground.

One hit was all it took. The man toppled over, looking around for the source of the attack. Spooked, the rest ran, followed by their makeshift leader. Holly watched all this with just a touch of self satisfaction, failing to noticed that the pale youth she had just saved was getting to his feet and putting on a pair of mirrored, anti-shield glasses he had manufactured himself two years ago.

"Holly?" Asked the boy, visibly stunned.

Captain Short spun around, realizing for the first time exactly who she had just saved.

  
**Author's Notes, chapter 1: **

The first chapter in any good book needs to establish two things: plot and character. I had the advantage of using pre-established characters, but I still needed to fit in the changes that had happened to them, and begin to set up my original character villain. I also hinted at a second OC that might end up coming in for a bit, although I don't know if she'll play any sort of important part. Don't worry about her becoming a Mary Sue, she has a beard after all.

Part one is largely plot, but pay careful attention to how Foaly and everyone else are speaking. Here's a hint: the word dragon isn't normally capitalized by fairy kind, but I assure you I didn't make the same typo repeatedly when writing for Foaly. Definite foreshadowing there, I can't wait to hear the conspiracy theories you're going to come up with. I reworded some of Holly's thoughts, and fixed up some of my punctuation. Thank you for the very helpful review Nimrod, I love C&C.

Part two also got some editing, again thanks to Nimrod's review. I tried to make things a bit more clear, and fixed up some words and phrases here and there. I'm going to admit right now that, frankly, I don't know a thing about Oxford other than the name and what I got from three minutes browsing their website. If you're an Oxford student, I'm very very sorry for completly miswriting for your school.

Part three was a chance for me to figure out just who Holly was. I understand Artemis quite well, he's the sort of character I write and roleplay for all the time. Holly, however, is going to be a challenge to write for. Keeping her IC isn't going to be easy, so I decided to do a smidge of practice. Foaly also got a few lines here, mostly to give the readers a heads up that Arty wasn't as in the dark as LEP hoped for. The 'video feed trick' from part two was another hint about that, it's the same trick Foaly's used many a time before to trick human security cameras. 

So what's next? Well, it occurs to me we haven't really met the villain of this piece yet. You're going to have to wait a bit before finding out what happens at Arty and Holly's little reunion. They'll be back soon, though, just give me a day to introduce the last major character. 


	3. Idiot Savant part 1

Idiot Savant: part 1  
  
The Canadian Arctic, Southwest of Bathurst Isl.  
  
Deep in the Canadian north, on a small island, was a huge cave. From the outside, it looked like any other cave in the permanent icy layer that covered the whole area: like some ominous white lair of a strange snow beast.  
  
The insides, however, were quite different. It still strongly resembled a lair, but with its metal-coated walls and glowing electrical lights one would more likely accredit it to a mad scientist than the sasquatch. In fact, it belonged to neither, the vast system of modernized caves was home to the first dragon earth had seen in centuries.  
  
The dragon, which went by the name of Sassafras Snapdragon, sat idly atop a pile of various priceless knickknacks he'd swiped along with the four 'princesses' cadged nearby. "Are they here yet?" he whined, his hissing voice like that of a bratty child crossed with some monstrous snake.  
  
Beside the wall of cadges, only three of which were filled, a middle aged woman sat quietly knitting on an old rocking chair. "I don't think so, dear," she said in a vague sort of voice, answering the dragon. "But don't you worry, I'm sure they'll be here soon." She gazed lovingly at the lounging lizard-like creature, her hands passing yarn over her large wooden needles mechanically as she spoke.  
  
"That's not fair," moaned the dragon, "I want to play now! I was so nice and showed them here and all and they don't even try to say hello."  
  
"Yes," agreed the human, "they're being very rude, aren't they? Keeping my poor dear waiting like this."  
  
"And not nice, too," added Sassafras. "It's soooo boring waiting for them to get here! I need them to get here before I can start!"  
  
"Patience, dear," the human replied, "have patience."  
  
The human held out her knitting, a huge scarf almost big enough to fit around the dragon's neck. She looked at it critically, giving it a stern glance up and down, then began another row. "Maybe you could play with your other friends while you wait?" she suggested, motioning to the row of caged fairies.  
  
Snapdragon looked over at his three captives, sizing them up. In the cage closest to him was a pink-haired elf in her fifties, the epitome of Haven cool. Her short hair was gelled up to a point, and the heart and skull-and- crossbones bracelets she wore on either arm matched her pink tank top and imitation LEP uniform pants perfectly. The second was a slightly older dwarf, maybe seventy or eighty. Her clothes were plain brown, the fashion amongst her kind, and her shortish beard and hair were free of the usual bugs and grime. The third child could not have been a day older than twenty- five, curled up in one corner with a little plush toad doll clutched firmly in her little arms. All three looked horrified, staring up at the dragon with green, mud brown and bright blue eyes respectively.  
  
"Let us out you ugly overgrown goblin!" Yelled the dwarf, trying not to sound too terrified as she spoke.  
  
"Mommy, the fat one's insulting me again!" complained the dragon loudly to the human rocking calmly in the corner.  
  
"Dwende, please don't use such language," scolded the human, "it's rude."  
  
"You. you're insane!" yelled the exasperated dwarf, speaking to human and dragon alike.  
  
"Yea? Well, you smell," replied the dragon, sticking out his forked tongue in a rude and childlike gesture.  
  
Dwende sunk back into the corner of her cage, half terrified of and half exasperated with her captor.  
  
"I hope these people you're waiting for blast you to smithereens when they come" she said, crossing her arms and settling down again to wait for rescue.  
  
The rescue, however, was having troubles of it's own.  
  
Author's notes: Okay, a really badly written chapter part today. The name is the only part I even remotely like, a big thanks to for the idea. Also, a thanks to for the name of the dwarf character, and a big thanks to my own imagination for the dragon's name. I can sense this part is going to get heavily polished during the chapter compilation stage. We're talking dwarven rock polish here. Still, at least you all know who the bad guy is now. More on Snappy, his weird mesmerized pseudo-mom, and Dwende the spoilt dwarf with an attitude problem soon.  
  
I'm not sure about the ages I gave for the three 'princesses', I may be off on them. The first one is supposed to be in her late teens/early twenties, the second late twenties to mid thirties, and the third one only seven or eight years old by human standards. If anyone knows what the fairy equivalents of those are, please enlighten me. 


	4. Idiot Savant part 2

Oxford University, London, England  
  
Artemis was very rarely at a loss for words. As far as he recalled (although he was none to trusting of his memory after the mind wiping incident) it had happened less than half a dozen times since he had learnt to speak. Adrenaline still coursed through his veins, flight or fight instincts still dominant in the young human's mind. It had all happened so fast! He, Artemis Fowl II, had been attacked! And saved by his old nemesis! Despite his best efforts to react no coherent let alone genius words came to mind as he stared at the shielded fairy hovering just above him.  
  
Holly, however, was far better prepared for such circumstances. LEP training taught officers to suppress fight or flight if they needed too, and she did have the advantage of knowing that Fowl was in the area. Much to her surprise, she was the one to get in the first real words.  
  
"Where did you get those?" she asked, referring to his unusual glasses.  
  
The direct question was enough to snap Artemis out of his momentary confusion. "I made them," he replied, regaining his eerily emotionless voice, "you might remind your centaur friend to keep a closer lock on his computer systems."  
  
Holly was glad she had turned off her helmet, one of the many things Foaly didn't need was a reason to become even more paranoid. Flicking her helmet back on so as not to arouse suspicion as to why she had turned it off in the first place, Holly continued.  
  
"We mind wiped you," she stated, "you said you had no way to regain your memories. Under /mesmer/."  
  
"I may have left out a few things in that particular conversation," Artemis replied, the faintest tinge of remorse in his voice, "do you honestly think it was for the worst?"  
  
Holly realized how long such questions could go on for, and dropped the topic. Fowl had a point, eight years ago he would have stated "I lied" and shown not a trace of pity over it.  
  
"But questions of my miraculous recollections aside, why are you here?" asked Artemis, trying to brush off a grass stain on his left sleeve he had just noticed. That had /hurt/! They had actually hurt, and he hadn't been able to stop it.  
  
"The LEP council sent me to ask for your help," said Holly, words she had not expected to have to utter. Artemis was supposed to be stunned by a sudden influx of memories, then /mesmer/ized until he was safely in Haven. Bargaining with a fully aware Fowl was not going to be an easy task.  
  
"And they have no intention of meeting me here. You were to /mesmer/ize me before I regained my memories, and then transport me back to Haven," stated Artemis, reiterating Holly's own train of thought.  
  
"That was the plan," confessed Holly.  
  
"I see," said Artemis, "I wasn't to be given much choice in the matter. It's an interesting offer, though, and I'm sure the reward for my assistance would be considerable. If the People have come to me for assistance, there can't be many other options out there."  
  
Holly nodded, hiding her frustration. Artemis was considering the proposal, but he sure was taking his sweet time about it.  
  
"In fact, there is one thing that the People could give me." Said Artemis after a moment of thought. "I'll come with you to Haven." Taking a rare leap of faith, he removed his glasses and folded them neatly away.  
  
"/Thank you,/" said Holly, /mesmer/ seeping quietly into her voice. "/now, sleep/"  
  
Author's notes: Because of the need to italicize a lot of text in this chapter, words surrounded by /right slashes/ should be read as italicized text. Not much more to say on this, except writing for a genius is far more difficult than I thought it would be, and boy am I going to have a tough time with three of them in the story.  
  
Yes, this is a day late. I'm not going to have as much time as I hoped I would have to update, expect triweekly updates, but not daily ones. 


	5. Idiot Savant part 1 of part 3

LEP HQ, Haven, the Lower Elements  
  
The journey from surface to the police headquarters had been, thankfully, incident free for Holly and her sleeping passenger. With her relatively recent boost of magic, a moon belt, and a large roll of camouflage foil, Holly had been able to carry Artemis from Oxford to the London access shuttleport without any chance of humans spotting them. Once there, half a dozen security squads had transported the dangerous mud man down to Haven.  
  
"He's a bit young for a supervillain, isn't he?" one of the officers had commented. Holly had glared at him, but privately agreed. Without his carefully maintained blank expression, the sleeping genius looked quite tranquil and innocent. /Looks can be deceiving/ Holly reminded herself, vividly recalling an ambitions young pixie imprisoned not yet a decade ago.  
  
Less than an hour after his voluntary capture, Artemis sitting, still asleep, in a large chair in an interrogation chamber he had used on his last little visit to Haven.  
  
"All his memories back?" asked Root, eyeing the eighteen year old menace to the People with obvious suspicion. In the background, Holly's brief conversation with Artemis was being played for a third time for the Brotherhood of Psychologists, who were trying to figure out just how this pale boy had managed to regain his memories. Short herself had been given more than one suspicious glance that told her she was being held responsible for this, although she knew perfectly well her /mesmer/ worked just as well as anyone else's. The fact that Foaly was standing in the background the whole time, looking smug, didn't help at all. Holly had growing suspicions that the centaur knew about this far before the rest of LEP.  
  
"Yes, they're all there," replied Holly, answering the question for at least the twentieth time that day. Half of LEP had been debating for a good thirty minutes over what to do with the Fowl matter.  
  
In the end, however, they didn't have much choice. They had no other options, memories or no memories the People were stuck with Fowl.  
  
The command to wake Artemis was given at last, and Holly reluctantly withdrew her /mesmer/ hold on him and let him wake up. The first thing to return to his slowly awakening body was his accustomed expression, the eerie emotionless face Holly had become so familiar with over the last decade. He was quick enough to right himself in his chair, taking in his surroundings without looking nervous as he did so.  
  
His next action was to check his left temple. No translator this time, he noted. In fact, there was very little in the way of fairy technology in the room. He didn't blame them, really, after all he had already reverse engineered half a dozen of their little devices. The LEP council wasn't stupid, they weren't about to risk handing a known security risk more new toys to play with.  
  
"So, why exactly have you brought me here?" asked Artemis, speaking fluent Gnomish with only a slight accent. "Captain Short was not particularly open regarding the details."  
  
The group of psychologists in the back burst into a fit of muttering, chattering amongst themselves over this new tidbit about the child genius. Root scowled back at them, and Artemis privately shared the Commander's feelings over the group. When would these people learn his mind was not a book that could be opened with a psychology degree and a few textbooks?  
  
"We've got a problem," said Foaly, stepping forward without missing a beat. "A big one, with teeth. Ever heard of a Dragon, mud boy?"  
  
Author's notes: Yes, I am actually posting a part of a part today. Lazy of me, I know, but the next bit is going to take some careful wording and I just got this great (I mean GREAT) idea for a one-shot Fowl fic that will eat me alive if I don't write it (ideas get vicious when ignored.) At least this is something, the rest should get up some time tommorow. 


End file.
